Live report DIE HAPPY & ROYALIST, Gruenspan, Hamburg – December 30th, 2022

It became a nice tradition that DH schedule for a small mini-tour through Germany between Christmas and New Year. Now, as for all bands, the past two years brought challenges and it is even more delightful that 2022 ends with a resumption of the Die Happy concert tour.

Was it the Große Freiheit 36 in 2019, which provided DH a stage, so it is this time the Gruenspan. But before the four of Die Happy board the stage it is up to Hamburg-based newcomers Royalist to ignite the flame of rock.

The fourpiece obviously enjoys a home game with their most important fans in the front row. Musically, the youngsters run through a 40-minute set which does exactly what a support band needs to do; get the crowd into the right vibe for the main act.

The quartet call their style neofuturistic rock and it describes their music quite well. A hard-hit guitar, vocals from singing to screaming and some samples, these are the main ingredients for a sound that alternates between melancholy, melody and anger. All four guys perform instead of ‚just‘ running through their set. It even goes that far that guitarist Nico went into the crowd for some riffs and has a hard time to get back due to pure enthusiasm.

All in all, Royalist have the potential to become a hype, hopefully stay down-to-earth, deliver an energetic show and brings everybody into the right mood für the main act of tonight.

It doesn’t take too long for the stagehands to prepare everything for Die Happy and the moment the quartet enters the stage the applause of their fans welcomes them warmly. A Die Happy show is always a powerful and dynamic happening which has a lot to do with the sheer endless energy of singer Marta Jandová. Not only that she is a great singer, Marta is also an entertainer in the best meaning of the word. She is always in interaction with fans, animating them to jump around and sing-a-long, like during ‚Big Boys‘.

Next to the hard rocking songs, Die Happy has also calmer tunes in their offer, meaningful songs with depth, like ‚The End‘. Also, the acoustic interlude shows the width of the Die Happy’s range of songs. Tonight, the band invited für the two songs a good friend. Felix Gerlach joins the band with his cello-sound and the entire setting brings back memories of the 25-years acoustic tour, on which one shown, in 2018, took place at Gruenspan too.

Furthermore guitarist Thorsten Mewes shows his rap talent while ‘Love Suicide’ is played and ‚Rebel‘ is the jump-around moment. With the first encore ‘Letter to a Friend’ Die Happy reminds us of all the ones that we lost this year, bevor the band smash hit from 2000. ‚Supersonic Speed‘, makes the crowd go wild. Well-done is the ‚God Gave Rock’n’roll to You‘ snippet before ‘Breathing’ finishes off a great evening, together with the promise that everybody can expect the band to be back in Hamburg on December 30th, 2023.

I strongly assume, that everybody who was at Gruenspan tonight, marked the date für next year in their calendars and looks forward to it with full excitement.